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What Pakistan needs?

Pakistan does not need a military take over. Neither does it need a sharia system nor westernization. All it needs is a nation. It has been over 60 years that this country was born. In these 60 years, the people of Pakistan have failed to stand as one. Ethnic and sectarian divisions have torn apart the country. Efforts have been made all along to unite the people under the banner of Islam. We were asked to believe in ‘Pakistan ka matlab kia? La Ilaha Il Allah’. Unfortunately this phrase did not play the magic it was expected to play rather it caused certain dominant sects to impose their interpretation of Islam on the smaller sects. These particular sects also seem to have held the right to who can be called a Muslim and who cannot. I believe Pakistan desperately needs nation-building followed by democracy to be rescued from where it stands or it can lead to further disaster.

In 1971 East Pakistan became Bangladesh. It was not because its residents were non-Muslims. We lost East Pakistan due to our own faults. We couldn’t unite as one nation. We tried to impose a language on their people which they couldn’t relate to. We tried to benefit from their resources and we denied them political freedom. As a result they sided with the “hindu” enemy and became independent. Even Islam in this case could not act as the uniting force. Now we are left with West Pakistan. Today West Pakistan is divided between Mohajirs and Pathans. Punjabis and Balochis. The army and the mullahs. The landlords and the elites. The Shias and the Sunnis. The Mian sahiban and the Bhuttos. Each is trying to impose its views on the other and they are all pulling Pakistan towards themselves. In doing so they are tearing apart the country.

We need to realize that Pakistan is not for one particular ethnicity, sect, class, or a political party. Pakistan is for all of us. We need to accept each other as we are. Pakistan is a state with great diversity in terms of ethnicity. Instead of imposing certain customs and traditions on to everyone we need to cherish our diversity. We have to look at each other not as a Pathan, Mohajir, Balochi or a Punjabi but as a fellow Pakistani. We need to understand that our fellow Pakistani has the same right to Pakistan as we do. We have in front of us so many examples where Pakistanis forgot their differences and stood as one. During the wars we fought, Pakistan stood united. During the earthquake in 2005, Pakistan stood united. During the restoration of the chief justice, Pakistan stood united. And every time we stood united, we achieved what we wanted.

Today we have to stand united to defeat the forces of extremism and sectarianism. The spiritual leaders of the different sects have to set examples for their followers by preaching tolerance. The politicians have to set examples for their voters by practicing equality. The parents have to set examples for their children by removing prejudices. The teachers have to set examples for their students by teaching unity. We have to set examples for the generations to come to find an identity we haven’t been able to find yet. While it can not be denied that Pakistan was formed for the Muslims of the subcontinent as a state where they were allowed to practice their religion freely, we also cannot forgot the fact that the Quaid of the nation was a secular person by all means. Jinnah was an Ismaeli by birth and converted to twelver Shiism later in his life. He was never a religious person and mostly communicated in English. However, he managed to unite a great percentage of the Muslim population of subcontinent under his leadership for the struggle for a separate homeland. We have to stop fighting over our differences. We fought for this nation together, we must save it together!

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7 thoughts on “What Pakistan needs?”

The interesting dynamics of the subcontinent tell us that western democracy is not well suited for the peoples there. It is because of the peoples’ inability to prioritize national citizenship over ethnic roots and cultures that there exists an almost immature attachment and pride in one’s ethnic roots/culture/religion. It is because of these population’s unrelenting willingness to hold on to their roots that the subcontinent split into 3 different countries, and the current ethnic divisions you see today. Compare the ethnic heterogeneity of us to that of the US or the UK. Immigrants just kept coming to the US, and the UK actually comprises of Welsh, English, Scottish and Irish ethnic groups, of various religious denominations. So how did they achieve ethnic cohesion?It’s because they stopped living in the middle ages. They put nationhood first, and they purposely eroded their customs. Today you cannot tell if an American white is German, or Italian, etc. He’s just white. But for some reason, we’re not just brown – we’re Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil, etc.

That is the first reason why democracy doesn’t prove beneficial. Because the inevitable “losers” in a democracy are always going to cause problems in terms of getting things done. China is superlative in this context, where their iron fist government actually gets things done – no bitching, no complaining. Just get it done. Hence you see the industrial superpower that is China, whereas Pakistan India and Bangladesh are taking years just to build a flyover.

It is also the very nature of the democratic process that the voters usually cannot see what is good for them in the long term, and hence politicians will only seek short term development to keep power in office.

Thirdly, a democracy is efficient and prosperous only if there exists an educated electorate. Are the majority of voters in the subcontinent educated or literate? In fact, are Chinese voters educated? I don’t think so. So do they really know what they want for themselves, or are they just sheep that have been herded into “vote banks” by politicians?

The first and foremost thing that the peoples of the subcontinent need to do is to forget their history. They need to look forward, rather than find reasons in their past to keep divisions. If this one step can be followed, we can actually see economic cooperation on a massive level. Forget the EU; ASEAN is a great example of this.

People say that Americans don’t have culture. They’re correct. They have forsaken their culture and differences to become the richest and most powerful nation in the world.

Pakistan was founded on the agenda of hatred towards India and the Hindus. The Pakistani army, which the real power in Pakistan calls the shots on all important issues, hogs a big chunk of the national budget at the expense of education, health care etc, runs terrorist training camps to help swell the ranks of LET, JEM and Afghan Taliban.

Through a decades long close relation with China, Pakistan only managed to be the biggest exporter of terrorism. Hatred and religious intolerance is taught systematically in Pakistan through school curriculum, the madrasas and the mullahs.

Given the above, no person with any shred of shame should expect a nation out of Pakistan …….. !!!

@ Aun …. your effort really apriciated bro… i may have differnt views on somethings but i really like your blog..

@Neel… before telling us that our army supported LET let me tell you when i was a child every one was contributing through LET dropboxes placed in markets and i was one of them.. so the support was and still is there in people of pakistan … and support is against whoever has occupied kashmir against the will of kashmiris.. you quit kashmir our people stop supporting LET..
and for your kind info it was indian govt supporting TAMIL TIGERS and now they are supporting BLF… and BLF will soon have the same fate as of TAMIL TIGERS

and let me explain that i dont support terrorism and i have never heard someone in Pakistan who supported mumbai attacks. LET is being alleged that it carried out that attack but they never accepted that. I dont support any org. who support terrorism and attacks xpecialy against civilians in any part of the world
i condemn attacks on civilian either they are in mumbai or in lahore . . And i do condemn the occupation of kashmir by indian army.
And let me tell u that that hundred thusands have been killed thusands women have been raped in kashmir by ur so called secular army. u can hear wot hafiz saeed says in lahore but u cant hear the voice of modi and thakry . .
India is the country which has largest no of septraist movments in a single country so plz u dont teach us what a nation is.
Former USSR has similar intentions like india and its fate would be the same. and india is united by similar means which soviat used . . U r heading towards a disastar similiar to USSR.